ness of the bon ton contrived that ingenious system of pasteboard civilities, by means of which the courtesies of social intercourse are now so cheaply paid and received. The hospitalities of that day were substantial; and never were they dispensed with more profusion than under the roof of general Neville. Pittsburg and its vicinity were then but thinly populated, and houses of entertainment were scarce. Strangers of respectability almost always brought letters of introduction to the general, to whose house they were invited with a frankness which banished all reserve on the part of the guest. Here they remained during their stay in the country, and such was the hearty welcome they received, and the continued round of social pleasure which they enjoyed, that their visits were often delayed beyond the original limit. But it was not under his own roof alone, that this gentleman dispensed happiness; he was the constant patron of merit, and the needy never appealed to him in vain for relief.

A man so highly gifted was not calculated to pass unnoticed through life; nor was all of his time devoted to its enjoyment. Besides the offices which he exercised, he was in other respects an active citizen; a liberal promoter of all public improvements, and a careful guardian of the rights of his fellow-citizens. He was often referred to by the federal government for local information, and was once appointed on a mission to France, but was taken ill at Boston, where he was about to embark, and obliged to decline the duty. He also, at different periods, held the offices of surveyor, county lieutenant, and paymaster general to the army of the insurrection. These trusts he discharged with fidelity. The friendship of Washington, and of most of the conspicuous men of that day, which he had gained as a soldier, he forfeited not as a citizen.

Such was the man who was doomed in his old age to present a striking example of the instability of fortune. His notions were too princely for a private individual, and adversity was the inevi table consequence. His fine fortune dwindled under his lavish beneficence; and was perhaps more deeply injured by those who shared his bounty, and whom he trusted without suspicion. There was no guile in him, and he suspected it not in others. He found himself, at last, dependent in a great measure for support upon an

office which he held under the state of Pennsylvania. But even this was not left to him. It would have been inconsistent with the practice of those times to have allowed an old soldier to carry his gray hairs in peace to the grave. Party spirit had reared its gorgon head, and as merit is ever the first object of its vengeance, the revolutionary veteran had nothing to hope.* But his sun was already setting, and the twilight of his existence alone was darkened by the storm. Still it was a sad reverse:—

"The harp that once in Tara's halls,

The soul of music shed,

Now hung as mute on Tara's halls,

As if that soul was fled."

Thus deprived of all but an unsullied reputation, general Neville retired to this spot, and seated himself on the land which had been earned by his revolutionary services. Here he lived in indigence, and died in obscurity. His remains were removed to Pittsburg, by the filial care of his eldest son, where they were interred with the highest military and civic honours.

I was at the burial of that gallant man. While living I never saw him-but I wept at his grave. It was a touching scene. That man, in prosperity was idolized-in adversity forsaken-in death honoured. There were those around his last earthly receptacle, whose feet had long forgotten the way to his dwelling-but there were none who remembered not his virtues. There were those who had drank of his cup-and whose hearts had smote them at that moment, could they have felt, as that sleeping warrior had felt, "how sharper than the serpent's tooth, is man's ingratitude." The young soldiers whose nodding plumes bent over the corpse, had been the infants who played about the good man's path, and now remembered only his gray hairs and gallant name, there was a flush on their cheeks-but it arose from the reflection, "that the dearest tear that Heaven sheds, is that which bedews the unburied head of a soldier."

* He was dismissed, with many other soldiers of the revolution, by Governor M'Kean.

Art XIV.-Theology explained and defended, in a Series of Sermons. By imothy Dwight, S. T. D. L. L. D., late President of Yale College. With a Memoir of the Life of the Author. In five Volumes. 8vo. Price 3l. 10s. Middletown, printed: London, re-printed, 1819. From an English Journal.

AMERICA has not of late years been indebted to this country for any theological publication of greater value than these lectures of President Dwight. If that jealousy of our transatlantic brethren, which has too long manifested itself in the supercilious tone of English writers towards every thing American, were not already subsiding, this work might seem sufficient to give a check to the language of disparagement, and to compel a more respectful estimate of at least one branch of her literature. But, unfortunately, that one branch is the least likely to obtain in this country adequate attention, or to be fairly and impartially appreciated; the American divines being too closely identified, in the minds of a large class of persons, with the English Calvinistic Dissenters, to stand a fair chance of having their claims to high consideration generally recognised. A modern essayist actually ranks President Edwards among English Dissenters, being ignorant that the Author of the acutest piece of metaphysical reasoning in the language, was an American. For any thing that appears to the contrary in respect to the purity of his style and the extent of his literary information, the Author of these volumes too might pass for an Englishman. And his masterly exposition and defence of the doctrines of the Reformation, might occasion his being referred to that class of theologians who in this country are stigmatised as Calvinists or evangelical divines. The truth is, that he was a man whom any religious denomination might be proud to claim, one whom every true Christian, of whatever country or language, must delight to recognise as a brother. Such men, the Latimers and the Leightons, the Pascals and the Fenelons, the Owens and the Henrys, the Brainerds and the Martyns, the Doddridges and the Dwights, are the property of no exclusive community: they belong to the Catholic Church. And one might be allowed to apply to them the apostolic designation: they are "the angels of the churches, and the glory of Christ."

Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton in the county of Hampshire, state of Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1752. His paternal ancestors were English, but his family had been settled in Massachusetts upwards of a century. His mother was the third daughter of President Edwards; and to this excellent parent, young Dwight was indebted for the rudiments of his education, and for his early impressions of piety. She is said to have possessed uncommon powers of mind, and having been accustomed from infancy to the conversation of literary men at her father's house, was well aware of the importance of intellectual acquirements. It was a maxim with her, that children generally lose

several years, in consequence of being considered by their friends as too young to be taught. She accordingly, began to instruct her son almost as soon as he was able to speak, so that before he was four years old, he was able to read the Bible with correctness.

"At the age of six, he was sent to the grammar school, where he early began to importune his father to permit him to study Latin. This was denied, from an impression that he was too young to profit by studies of that description; and the master was charged not to suffer him to engage in them. It was soon found to be in vain to prohibit him; his zeal was too great to be controlled. Not owning the necessary books, he availed himself of the opportunity when the elder boys were at play, to borrow theirs; and, in this way, without his father's knowledge, or his master's consent, studied through Lilly's Latin Grammar twice. When his master discovered the progress he had made, he applied earnestly to his father, and finally obtained a reluctant consent that he might proceed; though every effort short of compulsion was used to discourage him. He pursued the study of the language with great alacrity, and would have been prepared for admission into College at eight years of age, had not a discontinuance of the school interrupted his progress, and rendered it necessary for him to be taken home, and placed again under the direction of his mother."

The conduct of the father will remind our readers of the simi lar prohibition which was laid, from the same mistaken kindness, on Pascal, and which gave occasion for the astonishing display of his precocity of genius. Mr. Dwight was an intelligent man, and in the company of the well educated persons whom his hospitality attracted, his son had valuable opportunities of enlarging his information, and was stimulated to ardent exertion. In his fourteenth year, having, during the previous twelvemonth, improved his knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages in a respectat le school at Middletown, young Dwight was admitted a member of Yale College; but the disorganized state of the college at that period, together with the interruptions of ill health, rendered the first two years which he passed there, all but absolutely lost time. His intense application during the subsequent two years, laid the foundation of a weakness of sight which caused him great distress during the remainder of life. He formed a resolution, to which he faithfully adhered, to employ fourteen hours every day in close application to his studies. In the year 1769, being a little past seventeen years of age, he received the degree of Batchelor of Arts. On leaving college, he was employed to take charge of a grammar school at New Haven, and during the two years he passed in that situation, his time was thus distributed: six hours in school; eight hours in close and severe study; ten hours to exercise and sleep. In Sep. 1771, he was chosen a tutor in Yale College.

"When he entered upon the office, more than half the members of his class were older than himself; and the freshman who waited upon him, was thirty-two years of age. Notwithstanding a circumstance generally so disadvantageous, he proceeded in the discharge of his official duties with firmness and assiduity; and in a short time gained a reputation for skill in the government and instruction of his class, rarely known in the former experience of the College. In addition to the customary mathematical studies, he carried them through Spherics and Fluxions, and went as far as any of them would accompany him into the Principia of Newton. He also delivered to them a series of lectures on style and composition, on a plan very similar to that contained in the Lectures of Blair, which were not published until a considerable time afterwards. His application to study during the six years he remained in office, was intense. In the year 1772, he received the degree of Master of Arts, on which occasion he delivered, as an exercise at the public Commencement, a Dissertation on the History, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible. This production, composed and delivered by a youth of twenty, on a subject then so new and of such high interest, was received with the strongest marks of approbation. A copy was immediately requested for the press; and it was afterwards re-published both in America and in Europe. The field of thought was new in this country. The Lectures of Lowth, if then published, were not known on this side of the Atlantic; nor do we know of any work, except the Bible itself, to which the Author appears to have been indebted for his plan or his illustrations."

During the second year of his tutorship, he subjected the physical powers of his constitution to an experiment which had very nearly proved fatal. In order to save the time spent in bodily exercise, he resolved to attempt how far he could obviate the inconveniences attendant on habits of constant sedentary application by, abstemiousness. He began this system by gradually reducing the quantity of his food at dinner, till he brought it down to twelve mouthfuls. After trying this regimen for six months, feeling less clearness of apprehension than was desirable,' he adopted a vegetable diet, without increasing the quantity. His constitution was strong enough to enable him to persevere in this rash system for a twelvemonth. At length it gave way, although, strange to say, Mr. Dwight, when he first perceived the reality of the change in his health, had no suspicion of the cause. Repeated attacks of the bilious cholic brought him, at last, to so extreme a degree of emaciation and weakness, that it was with great difficulty that he was removed to Northampton, and his recovery seemed even to himself hopeless. He was recommended, when some improvement had been effected by the aid of medicine, to try the effect of vigorous bodily exercise as the only means of restoring his constitutional health; and to his perseverance in following up this